IN-DEPTH: Can a protective order actually protect?

The court could have blocked gun purchase. Could it have prevented victim's paralysis?

Aug. 18, 2013

Alisha Waters Mathis at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. / Provided

Seeking stronger laws

The family of Alisha Waters Mathis is trying to create change at the Kentucky Legislature level to strengthen domestic violence protection laws. • See the petition: www.change.org/petitions/the-legi slators-and-governor-of-kentucky-change-emergency-protection-order-lawsOr visit it by searching for Edde Scudder of Amelia, Ohio, on Facebook. To donate to Alisha Waters Mathis’ fund online, visit Edde Scudder of Amelia, Ohio, on Facebook. A link will be added within the week. If you’re a victim

• See the situation for what it is: You may be in danger and you are vulnerable. • Collect evidence. Keep a log of times, dates and details of when you are threatened or fearful. Keep text messages, emails and voicemail recordings. • Seek support from family, friends and a crisis center. Do not hesitate to call. • Formulate with a crisis center expert, or counselor’s help, a safety plan. Sources include TK Logan, Ph.D., with University of Kentucky Department of Behavioral Science and the Kentucky Domestic Violence Association. For help

Would protection order have stopped shooting?

A 2007 study on the effectiveness of civil protection orders paid for by the National Institute of Justice shows about half of victims surveyed were targeted by their perpetrators even after they had an order.

“Fifty percent do violate,” said the study’s researcher, TK Logan at the University of Kentucky Department of Behavioral Science. “Half of those violating stalk and violate, while the other half violate but do not stalk.”

Even so, said Marsha Croxton, executive director of the Women’s Crisis Center of Northern Kentucky, “If he or she is a true stalker and he’s really intent on hurting her or him, that paper in and of itself isn’t going to stop that person.”

Waters Mathis had done everything to try to protect herself from her estranged husband. She moved from her Independence house to her mother’s Florence home. She kept in close touch with her parents and brothers. She notified co-workers of her estranged husband’s threatening behavior. She sought a divorce and a protection order from court.

She was granted an emergency protection order on April 16. The next step in Kentucky is to set a hearing date for both parties to appear and for the judge to consider the longer-term domestic protection order.

In her plea for the protection order, Waters Mathis wrote that her estranged husband had called or texted her no fewer than 186 times in two weeks and may have been following her. She feared for her safety and the safety of her dogs. She was sure her husband had not been taking prescription medication for a mental illness.

But on April 22, Kenton County Family Court Judge Lisa Bushelman denied Waters Mathis the domestic violence protection order and withdrew the emergency order.

“No allegation of domestic violence,” the order reads.

“The situation is like the perfect storm,” said Kentucky Domestic Violence Association executive director Sherry Currens. “You have someone not taking medication. Someone who is stalking. It is a really big red flag.”

Logan and Currens said it appears Waters Mathis met the criteria to receive a protection order. Kentucky law includes “the infliction of fear of imminent physical injury” in its definition of domestic violence.

But, said Currens, the interpretation of the law varies widely and he noted judges may use their discretion.

Domestic violence protection orders prevent gun purchases

Because Waters Mathis didn’t get that order, Mathis, was able to walk in and out of Triggers gun shop in Florence on Aug. 5 within 30 minutes, cleared by a criminal background check, with a newly purchased a .38-caliber handgun.

The next morning he ambushed her at 20 Grand Ave. in Fort Thomas as she entered her workplace.

Mathis shot her five times, including once through the back, left side of her neck that left her paralyzed. He turned the gun around and shot himself in the head, falling dead.

While the temporary, emergency protection order initially provided to Waters Mathis in Kentucky would not have shown up in a criminal background check, a domestic violence protection order would have, area law enforcement officials said.

Mathis wouldn’t have been permitted to purchase that gun, said Fort Thomas Police Lt. Rich Whitford, who investigated the case.

Triggers did a criminal background check on Mathis by calling the FBI number provided to gun stores, said Whitford, who investigated the case.

“The fact that he legally purchased a weapon within 30 minutes and wasn’t flagged because she didn’t have a DVO (domestic violence protection order), that is our concern,” said Kurt Russell, Waters Mathis’ 22-year-old brother.

Bushelman has been silent on her ruling other than to issue a statement that she is “deeply saddened by this news and joins the community in expressing support and concern for all those affected by this tragedy.”

She said in the statement she is prohibited from commenting, and the Kentucky Administrative Office of Courts concurred, saying Bushelman is “ethically prohibited” from commenting on pending or impending cases, according to Leigh Anne Hiatt, spokeswoman for the state office.

Paperwork didn't protect Ohio woman

Lorrayne Mainer of Springfield Township sought protection from an abusive husband in Michigan. She had been shot at, stabbed and stalked.

She finally moved her family to Cincinnati, where her stepdaughter Cheryl Dawson was later stabbed to death by her own husband.

Mainer said Dawson had a protection order, but it did nothing. “I think what it does is, it gives you a false sense of, ‘It’s going to be OK.’ ”

Dawson’s estranged husband had been stalking, Mainer said. “He waited for her. He knew her schedule.”

The Dawsons’ children were 3, 5 and 7 when their mother was killed at age 37 in 2002, and the Mainers took custody of them. Dawson’s killer, Robert Dawson, is serving a 15-year-to-life sentence with eligibility to appear before a parole board in February 2017. He is in prison in Ohio’s Pickaway County.

But while experts such as Logan are advocates of protection orders, she also says “I don’t think it’s the answer in every situation.”

Croxton agrees the orders don’t help everyone.

“Here’s the reality of it: The majority of the time, they work. It’s like a cooling-off period. For most perpetrators, they don’t want to go to jail,” Croxton said. “For individuals who are getting stalked, it gives the victim the opportunity to press charges if they violate the protection order.”

Kendall Fisher, executive director of Women Helping Women in Cincinnati, said victims in Southwest Ohio can get help from her agency. “Protection orders are very confusing. That’s why we’re here.”

The Hamilton County Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team’s most recent report on homicides shows 20 percent of domestic abusers who killed were violating a protection order, and 67 percent of those who killed had violated a protection order in the past. A review from 1996-2006, found 48 such killings.

Getting support she needs, and trying to help others

Waters Mathis’ uncle, Edde Scudder of Amelia, is collecting signatures on a petition that seeks stronger protection orders in the commonwealth – including a stalking protection order.

As of Friday, the petition had 407 supporters.

“We will get this petition and place it at the governor’s door,” said Jim Russell, Waters Mathis’ stepfather. ⬛